Loading ...Bayside Beauty
Seclusion and privacy at the end of a long wooded road in a famous Cape Cod location. Panoramic views of Buzzards Bay. There were a lot of positive things to be said for the Upper Cape property purchased by an active family several years ago for their new seaside summer home.
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture
Out of the Box
The words were written in ballpoint pen on a scrap of printer paper and duct-taped to a tree in front of artist Jennifer Morgan’s new house in East Harwich: “This is a disgrace.”
Not exactly the warm, neighborly welcome Morgan was used to from her lifelong visits to Cape Cod. She could have been upset over it or worse, bitter. But that’s not Morgan’s style.
“I taped the sign to the window of my truck and drove around with it for a while,” Morgan laughs while recounting just one of many challenges she encountered in the process of designing and building her own house.
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture
Seaside Reverie
Renowned landscape architect Greg Lombardi was asked to create an elegant, yet natural-looking design to complement the renovation of a mid-Cape home for homeowners seeking a coastal retreat by the sea. Right from the beginning of the project, Lombardi took into account the homeowner’s desire for a tranquil refuge from complicated metropolitan lives, one that would allow the owners to relax in understated comfort, making the most of Cape Cod’s natural glory. “The clients wanted to engage in Cape Cod’s abundant nature, celebrating simple moments living by the sea,” says Lombardi.
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture
Creative Craftsman
“It’s not everyday you come across a client like this,” says Chris Hereford of HMD Architects in Harwich. “She really wanted to go the extra distance to create a home that was special.” The original house, which sits just off of Chatham’s Main Street, was a mishmash of styles—a little Greek Revival, a little Federal. “We did a total renovation of the house,” says Hereford. The dark, closed-off spaces did not work for the family. “There are often three generations under one roof here during the summer months,” says Hereford. Hereford, who had worked with the client on other house projects in the past, designed new spaces for the family—two additions—as well as adding much needed curb appeal and natural light to the home.
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture
Grandeur Recaptured
When interior designer Hope Van der Wolk began redecorating a grand turn-of-the-century seaside home in the Mid Cape area, she knew the house had a lot to reveal. But the summer house’s starry presence was being dimmed by some of it best features: the dark wood paneling, high ceilings, and vast scale.
So the Osterville designer, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and veteran of the studios of Ralph Lauren and Mario Buatta, called on her mastery of color, texture, and form to give the century-old beauty an interior lift. “I knew of the house, so the possibility of working on it was very exciting,” Hope says. She now has a deep relationship with the house, redecorating it two or three rooms at a time. Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Interiors
East Meets West
A career with computer giant IBM brought John Crawford and his wife Suzy around the world, with assignments in exhilarating cities including Paris and Tokyo, but when they realized retirement wasn’t too far off, they had to consider where they would plant roots. “For a number of years we started taking our regular vacations to places people retire to down South, here and there, and each time we’d come and see my folks here on the Cape,” explains John. “Then we said, ‘You know? We find the Cape to be the place we like the most.’” Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Interiors
Seaside Stylish
“In 2010, the kitchen is the heart of every home,” says Rebecca Brown, Design Manager for Classic Kitchens and Interiors of Hyannis, the kitchen design and installation company of choice for the highly regarded Cape Cod architecture and construction firm Polhemus Savery DaSilva (PSD). The firm’s President, Peter Polhemus, says “For more than ten years we have engaged Classic Kitchens and Interiors for the majority of our projects. They are our preferred kitchen company because they provide consistently high quality design, products, installation, and service. As a firm that insists on working with consultants that share our commitment to thoughtful design and well-crafted construction, we find the relationship with Classic serves both us and our clients very well.” Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Interiors
Among the Dunes
The invitation was unexpected and intriguing: Did I want to spend the night in a dune shack just yards away from the Atlantic in Provincetown?
For those unversed in Cape Cod lore, the dune shacks are the bare-bones dwellings that run along a two-mile stretch of dune ridges and valleys between Race Point in Provincetown and High Head in North Truro. The earliest shacks housed sailors who shipwrecked during the 19th century on the treacherous Peaked Hill Bars just off the beach. Others were constructed to provide a getaway from nearby bustling Provincetown center. Today, 19 rough-hewn shacks remain, and like the rest of the Provincetown community, they are steeped in history, culture, stories, and legend. Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Places
Down by the River – Autumn ’10
Inside Riverbend, Donna and Frank Doyle’s 4,600-square-foot home at the mouth of the Herring River in West Harwich, windmills are as much a motif as nautical accessories and the creamy color palette. One windmill in particular-—built in 1924 overlooking a secluded inlet—is a centerpiece here. The windmill is rendered in countless photographs and paintings throughout the home, including several on a wall just past the home’s entrance way. It’s also the subject of an image mounted above the fireplace in the living room, a work supplied by Orleans Camera derived from a photograph Donna’s late father shot of the windmill. This windmill also once graced the cover of an issue of Cape Cod Life. Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Interiors
Open Quarters
After eight years of living in the cramped quarters of an 1820s Federal home in Provincetown, Neal Balkowitsch and his partner, Donald Nelson, decided they needed to upgrade the house to make it more functional. “At first we just wanted to add a master bath and replace some rotting windows, but this quickly ballooned into a whole house renovation,” says Balkowitsch. The old place was small and dark with an unfortunate 1930s addition that had a crumbling foundation. The only way to the master bedroom was via the antique, ultra-steep staircase—and the lone bathroom was on the first floor. “Try climbing those stairs in the middle of the night half asleep,” quips Balkowitsch. Some of the old sashes had been replaced with a large plate glass window in the 1950s, rendering the original historical façade unrecognizable.
Read more…
- Posted in Architecture, Arts & Culture, Interiors
